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Cedar's Rally Class

Cedar and I went to our first rally class this week. I had a very limited understanding about what rally was to begin with; My main goals for enrolling were to get Cedar socialized and for the two of us to do more stuff together. Looking at the list of signs given to us by the trainer, though, I can see that I had better keep my expectations low!!

For our first lesson, we worked with some of the most basic signs/commands. It was clear that Cedar is obviously the smallest dog there but perhaps even the youngest. She also appears to be the least trained. :S Most of the dogs are large breed and they all pretty much knew all the commands from the first lesson. Cedar didnt know "stand" at all, so we are working on that. She also had to get a refresher on staying while I walked around her (she stayed sat, but she scooted around 180 degree so she could watch me go around her ). She SHOULD know how to go from a down to a sit, but when we did it in class she wouldnt do it. When we were going through the course individually--with everyone watching--and we reached the final sign (halt/sit/down/sit), she did great with stopping, sitting, and downing. However, when I said sit the second time, she rolled over on her back belly up and tail wagging. The entire class awwwwed and giggled, saying "too cute!". This is the exact same thing she did (with the exact same audience encouragement!) during her CGC test. It's like she knows it's the last command and wants to ham it up rather than obey.

At least she was having a good time. As I said, I have to keep my expectations pretty low.

I like the idea of Rally being a bridge between CGC and formal obedience competition.

Last fall I volunteered to steward Rally at the Dobeman Nationals. What I discovered was that many of the dogs had already earned obedience titles. That is probably why many of the other dogs in class seem more advanced than Cedar.

I think Rally is a fun way to review the skills you know and learn others. (Lacey did not know stand when we started class either.) Boy, this makes me want to get back in another Rally class.

Thanks for replying! It is definitely a good perspective to consider that the other dogs in Cedar's class could already be showing in obedience trials. Even if that's not the case (I have no idea), at least it makes me feel a bit better!!

We had our second class tonight, and Cedar did really well. I was very pleased. She's got her sit/walk around and down/walk around figured out, and she picked up the moving down really quickly in class. Less then two minutes! She is even improving with the stand command. It is coming along a bit more slowly, but she did do it once perfectly without any underbody handling. So I know she's on her way.

Most of tonight's lessons had to do with the turns. Cedar learned how to heal and do all those turns while she was loose lead training, so most of tonight's learning curve was for me to figure out those signs! I get motion sick really easily, so by the end of the class, after doing all those turns, I was reeling. I hope Cedar doesnt get mad when we loose points in competition when I puke in the middle of the course. :S

I have never even heard of 'rally' so will have to check this out. You are doing it for all the right reasons -- to have fun with Cedar -- so I wouldn't worry about all the others with perfect down stays!! I know what you mean about motion sickness when doing lots of turns and so on -- same thing happens to me.

Jay, that's exactly what the trainer said when she heard me say "I'm getting dizzy!" I wonder when we'll start spirals? I had better take my dramamine!

Karlin: I didnt know much about rally O, either, and I work at the same university of the man who invented it!! It's a growing sport here in the US. It's sorta like a combination between obedience and agility. A handler and the dog work through a course. The course is set up with different stations. At each station, a sign tells the handler what obedience command she and the dog need to perform. The dog-handler team is scored, with different deductions for different types of errors. In competition, the total score and the time to complete the course work to rank each team in the competition.

Jay, that's exactly what the trainer said when she heard me say "I'm getting dizzy!" I wonder when we'll start spirals? I had better take my dramamine!

Karlin: I didnt know much about rally O, either, and I work at the same university of the man who invented it!! It's a growing sport here in the US. It's sorta like a combination between obedience and agility. A handler and the dog work through a course. The course is set up with different stations. At each station, a sign tells the handler what obedience command she and the dog need to perform. The dog-handler team is scored, with different deductions for different types of errors. In competition, the total score and the time to complete the course work to rank each team in the competition.

Just wanted to let you know how Monty and I did on our first ever weekend of Rally O trials. Monty (and I) received qualifying scores on both runs! We barely squeaked by on Saturday but improved by 10 points on Sunday. We had a good time and we actually got a couple of ribbons to boot. He (we) need to qualify in one more run to get our rally novice title. We are looking for a trial to enter so that we can hopefully earn that last leg. The jump up to Advanced is huge so after novice, we will practice, practice, practice. Gem is in training also. She is still a little flighty but we will start trialling with her as soon as we can. It was a lot of fun and I know what we need to improve on....faster sits and overall faster between stations (to keep Monty more focused). Rally is a fun way to improve obedience skills and to develop teamwork with your dog. As with all dog sports, keep it FUN!
We are also training for agility, but not quite ready for trials.
J.